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Punjab assembly polls: Confident of third win, Gurkirat Kotli strikes a chord with rural voters
While Gurkirat Kotli won from Khanna in 2017 as well as 2012 assembly polls in Punjab, residents of these villages have been instrumental in Congress’ win for the last four consecutive elections
In this constituency famous for Asia’s largest grain market, two-time Congress MLA and state industry minister Gurkirat Singh Kotli goes deep inside the villages of Isru, Turmari, Nasrali, Rajewal and more. Grandson of former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, Kotli has one question for everyone: “Wasn’t I present for you all along these 10 years?”
While Kotli won from Khanna in 2017 as well as 2012 assembly polls, residents of these villages have been instrumental in Congress’ win for the last four consecutive elections. “Before delimitation was done in 2012, villages of Turmari and Isru were in the Payal assembly segment from where my grandfather Beant Singh had been contesting. In Payal, both in 2007 and 2002, my father Tej Parkash Singh won and these very people voted for him before their villages were shifted to the Khanna segment. These people are dear to me as they have always been voting for my family,” says Kotli.
As he passes through the villages in his cavalcade of vehicles, he stops at a house to offer condolences to an aggrieved family who recently lost their loved one. As he touches the feet of the elderly, they embrace him as their own son. “Your grandfather also came to our house in 1991 and my eyes go wet when I remember him. You resemble him a lot,” says a teary-eyed Sarabjit Kaur, a resident of Turmari village.
Kotli’s next stop is the residence of another senior citizen woman who lost her son, sepoy Harjinder Singh in the Kargil War. He presents a shawl to the woman and assures her that her son will always be remembered for his supreme sacrifice.
At Turmari village with a population of around 1,100 with 800 eligible voters, Kotli thanks people for voting in huge numbers for his party in each assembly election and asks them to repeat the same this time too. “Out of 800 voters of this village, there were 100 odd voters last time who voted for AAP. I want to ask them, have they ever seen any AAP representative here in these five years? If AAP is voted to power, your children will not get jobs. They are outsiders and will always remain so,” he says.
Accompanying him on Saturday while campaigning is a team of Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee whose president Kuldeep Singh Rathore tells people they are fortunate to have a minister from their segment.
“Your three generations have been voting for the Congress. This village is the stronghold of Congress party and Kotli will become a minister again,” says Rathore.
Telling people that ‘Channi Sarkar is Changi sarkar’, Kotli tells villagers how he belongs to a Jat Sikh family and while his grandfather was the chief minister in 1995, the current CM Charanjit Singh Channi is a Dalit. “The fact that a Dalit face has been elected as the CM is testimony to the fact that our party cares for one and all and doesn’t differentiate anyone on basis of cast,” he says.
A constituency with total 1.6 lakh voters, Kotli is pitched against Bibi Jasdeep Kaur of the Shiromani Akali Dal, a first-timer and wife of controversial Youth Akali leader Yadwinder Singh Sadu. Besides, Gurpreet Singh Bhatti of the BJP and Tarunpreet Singh Saund of AAP has made the fight multi-cornered.
